Installing Texera on a Kubernetes Cluster

This document describes the five main parts that users are expected to configure when deploying Texera using this Helm chart. All other values should generally be left with their defaults unless users are aware of specific customizations needed.

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Prerequisites

Before configuring and deploying the Texera platform, ensure the following prerequisites are met:

1. Kubernetes Cluster: A working Kubernetes cluster (e.g., local minikube, or a cloud-based cluster). There should be at least 16 free CPU cores and 8 GB of RAM available.
2. Helm Installed: Helm v3 or later must be installed on your system to deploy the chart.
3. Custom Hostnames:

• In production environment with HTTPS support, two valid hostnames must be available—one for the Texera services and another for MinIO access. For example, texera.my.org for Texera services and minio.my.org for Minio should be available for deployment and external access.
• In testing environment, e.g. localhost or exposing services via HTTP: one valid hostname(i.e. IP address of the server or localhost) is enough. Port 30080 and Port 31000 will be occupied by default in this setting. To change the port occupation, see the below instructions.

4. TLS Configuration: You should either:
   • Have a pre-created TLS secret, or
   • Use cert-manager with a valid Issuer.

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Configuration Location

All configuration options mentioned in this guide are defined in the values.yaml file located under the deployment/k8s/texera-helmchart directory.

1. Username and Password Configuration

Credentials are used across different components such as PostgreSQL, MinIO, and LakeFS.

PostgreSQL

postgresql:
  auth:
    postgresPassword: root_password

• postgresPassword: The superuser password used during database initialization. Required by LakeFS and Texera backend services.

MinIO

minio:
  auth:
    rootUser: texera_minio
    rootPassword: password

• rootUser and rootPassword: Credentials used to access MinIO. These must match the S3 credentials provided to LakeFS.

LakeFS Secrets

lakefs:
  secrets:
    authEncryptSecretKey: random_string_for_lakefs
    databaseConnectionString: postgres://postgres:root_password@texera-postgresql:5432/texera_lakefs?sslmode=disable
  auth:
    username: texera-admin
    accessKey: AKIAIOSFOLKFSSAMPLES
    secretKey: wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY

• Ensure databaseConnectionString includes the correct PostgreSQL credentials.
• auth decides the credentials of initializing LakeFS's admin user and accessing LakeFS via API calls.

Texera Environment Variables

texeraEnvVars:
  - name: STORAGE_JDBC_USERNAME
    value: postgres
  - name: USER_SYS_ENABLED
    value: "true"
  - name: MAX_NUM_OF_RUNNING_COMPUTING_UNITS_PER_USER
    value: "10"

• These variables must reflect the credentials you configured for PostgreSQL, i.e. the user of the PostgreSQL.
• These variables control the behavior of the Texera system.

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2. Custom Hostnames and TLS Configuration

Customize the domain names used for accessing Texera services via Ingress. TLS is optional but recommended for production.

Ingress Hostnames and TLS

ingressPaths:
  enabled: true
  hostname: "localhost"
  tlsSecretName: ""       # Optional TLS secret
  issuer: ""              # Optional cert-manager issuer

• hostname: Set this to the custom domain for your Texera deployment (e.g., texera.example.com).
• tlsSecretName: Optional. Set to the name of a Kubernetes TLS secret if using HTTPS.
• issuer: Optional. Set to a cert-manager issuer if certificates should be managed automatically.

MinIO Ingress

minio:
  ingress:
    hostname: "localhost"
    tlsSecretName: ""
    issuer: ""

• These settings follow the same rules as Texera's ingress. Configure hostname, tlsSecretName, and issuer as needed.

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3. CPU and Memory Resource Configuration

Adjust resource requests to fit your cluster's capacity.

PostgreSQL

postgresql:
  primary:
    resources:
      requests:
        cpu: "4"
        memory: "4Gi"

• Tune based on expected database workload.

Other components (e.g., webserver, file service, envoy, and language servers) use default resource settings and are not expected to be changed.

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4. Custom Storage Class Configuration

The chart defaults to using local-path which may not be suitable for all clusters.

PostgreSQL

postgresql:
  primary:
    persistence:
      enabled: true
      size: 10Gi
      storageClass: local-path

MinIO

minio:
  persistence:
    enabled: true
    size: 20Gi
    storageClass: local-path

• Replace local-path with your cluster's preferred StorageClass (e.g., gp2, standard, etc.).

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5. Number of Replicas

You can scale some components by changing their replica count using the parameters below:

Components with Replica Settings

webserver:
  numOfPods: 1

yWebsocketServer:
  replicaCount: 1

pythonLanguageServer:
  replicaCount: 8

envoy:
  replicas: 1

workflowComputingUnitManager:
  numOfPods: 1

workflowCompilingService:
  numOfPods: 1

fileService:
  numOfPods: 1

• Increase these values to scale each component horizontally based on workload needs.

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6. Custom Ports for testing environment

By default, Texera services will occupy port 30080, and Minio will occupy 31000. If you want to change it, go to the corresponding sections in the values.yaml:

minio:
  service:
    type: NodePort
    nodePorts:
      api: 31000 # change here

ingress-nginx:
  controller:
    replicaCount: 1
    service:
      type: NodePort
      nodePorts:
        http: 30080 # change here

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By configuring these five areas—credentials, hostnames/TLS, resources, storage classes, and replica counts—you can tailor the deployment to suit your environment while relying on sane defaults for all other settings.

If you are installing Texera in your local Kubernetes environment, you don't need to change any of the above configurations unless needed.

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Installing and Uninstalling Texera

Launch the Whole Stack

Run the following command from the root directory of the repository:

helm install texera texera-helmchart --namespace texera-dev --create-namespace

This will:

• Create a Helm release named texera
• Create a namespace named texera-dev
• Deploy all Texera components under that namespace

Please wait about 1-3 minutes for all pods to be ready. Once the deployment is complete, Texera should be accessible at:

http://<your-hostname-for-texera>

Note: If you're using a non-default kubeconfig file, append --kubeconfig /path/to/your/kubeconfig to the Helm command.

Terminate the Whole Stack

To uninstall Texera and clean up all related resources:

helm uninstall texera --namespace texera-dev